Celebration of Economic History at the Nick Crafts memorial conference and lecture
Celebration of Economic History at the Nick Crafts memorial conference and lecture
Monday 25 Nov 2024Over 60 national and international delegates attended the Nick Crafts conference and lecture this year. As a memorial to the founder of the CAGE Research Centre who died in 2023, the event also highlighted key aspects of his groundbreaking work and contribution to economic history.
Bishnuprya Gupta (University of Warwick), Sayantan Ghosal (University of Glasgow) and Sascha Becker (University of Warwick) opened the event with tributes to Nick. They talked about his enthusiasm for new research, new ways to think of economic history, his interaction with colleagues and his management style:
“I came to Warwick 15 years ago in the year CAGE started. Nick was a superstar, but he didn’t act like one. He was very humble and very human. He was the Director of the Centre but didn’t treat people like he was the boss. Everyone was treated with respect whoever they were.” Sascha Becker
The University of Oxford’s Stephen Broadberry delivered a tribute to Nick:
“Nick was the most distinguished economic historian of his generation. I first met him as an undergraduate at the University of Warwick in the 1970s where he spent most of his career. He changed the way we look at the Industrial Revolution and the way research was conducted around key developments in British history.
“He spent his later career looking at the slow growth view of the Industrial Revolution for Britain’s subsequent development and implications for the future.”
Stephen then went on to discuss his work which he began with Nick on productivity and economic growth in Britain since 1086 and the country’s role as the location of the first Industrial Revolution.
A presentation on the way in which financial crises redistribute risk by Kris Mitchener (Santa Clara University) followed. He highlighted Nick Crafts’ “abiding interest in how industry and policy interact” and the need for solutions to encompass a historical approach.
During the event, Mara Squicciarini (Bocconi University) discussed her work on polarisation in politics. Analysing French politics between 1870-1915 and the role of Jesuits she explained her findings on the way ‘mediators’ can ‘de-polarise’ politics.
Then followed a presentation of research on economic decolonialisation and industrialisation by Nico Voigtländer (University of California) using evidence from India.
Transport costs and the impact on the US manufacturing belt throughout the 19th and 20th centuries was the focus of Alex Klein’s (University of Sussex) presentation which opened day two of the conference.
This was then followed by a presentation by Nikolaus Wolf on his work analysing the way the Gotthard Tunnel changed the European economy. At 15km long, when it was built in 1882 Gotthard was the world’s longest railway tunnel which aimed to increase local transport capacity through the Alps.
Walker Hanlon (Northwestern University) discussed Innovation Networks in the Industrial Revolution; Yuchen Lin (University of Warwick) presented her work on co-education and the evolution of gender norms in China in the early 20th century; and Kevin O’Rourke (CNRS and Sciences Pro) covered his work on 19th century globalisation and trade policy in the Netherlands during the interwar period.
Finally, James Fenske (University of Warwick) presented analysis on whether the introduction and rise of access to the railways between the mid-19th and -20th centuries affected fertility rates in Europe.
The highlight of the conference was the Crafts Lecture delivered by Leah Boustan, Professor of Economics at Princeton University and author of Streets of Gold. Discussing her programme of work which uses geography to understand immigrant success in the US, she focused on the importance of neighbourhoods in pursuing economic opportunity. What is the role of the choices that immigrants make? How does location determine opportunity? And is it the same today in a range of countries that are home to immigrants?
- View her presentation and listen to her lectureLink opens in a new window: Where are the Streets of Gold? Immigrant Success in the US and Europe
